Mel

I saw one setup of the four red lenses but the owner kept the original backup bulbs in place and wired them in to the brake lights. Running down the road had only the side lenses lit but all four lit when braking. More contrast from two to four bulbs. I thought it was an interesting take. I have the third light in the center on the back deck. The metallic lining behind the lenses inside the front and rear lamp holders had disintegrated. I bought some mirrors at a crafts store, a package of 1/2" and 1" squares as I recall, and (silicon) glued them on the backs, sides, tops and bottoms of all four lamp holders. That and the third light has me lit up pretty well. Good luck.

My '66, apparently, originally had the heat riser tube setup but was replaced with the setup described above. A few years after owning the car, I suddenly kept hearing an exhaust noise with headers and exhaust pipes appearing intact. I found a hole in the bottom of the right exhaust header, just behind the outlet to the exhaust pipe. Apparently, this may have been the original heat riser setup and the 'plugged up' pipe let go?? I used the shank of various drill sizes to determine the size of this hole and tapped it to put in a threaded plug. I don't believe (??) the hole went completely through to the actual exhaust but just transferred heat from the heat of the exhaust manifold. (Hope this makes sense!) As such, I started the tap of the hole with a regular tap but ended with a bottoming tap. No problem since then. Good luck!

I remember reading one very early review of the Avanti. The author stated the car did not have A/C but he could keep the temperature tolerable on the southern California highway by closing the front windows, opening the front foot vents, the center air vent with the temp control off, and the rear seat side vents. Haven't tried it, but may.

My 4160 has the bimetal coil spring and rod mechanism to interface the idle uptick and choke butterfly. No vacuum set up for the choke system but the vacuum port is used for the advance on the distributor.

I sealed this 'mystery hole' with a piece of 'sponge plastic' -- I don't know else to call it -- It's that stuff heavy appliances are packed with. I cut a circle slightly larger the hole diameter and plugged it up. Don't know if your set up is like this, but my ('67) motor had a hole about midway back on the bottom of the right exhaust header, as I recall, close to the block; this may have been for a 'heat transfer tube' leading to the carb for the choke. My setup did not require this. I tapped the hole and put a bolt in it to stop it up.

Nice '64! Not to belabor the point, but I wouldn't worry about setting up some modification and be concerned as to whether you could undo it in the future, unless you were only doing the modification to see if you liked it. Set the car up as you'd like and go from there. I'd probably try to find some GM transmission Guru, unless you are one, and find a 4 speed with an overdrive with an electric control, if such a setup is available. That way, you might be able to keep the original 4 speed setup inside the car. Sounds like a very interesting project. Again, keep us posted. Good luck!

Very nice looking car! If you're new to Avanti ownership, welcome! These cars are an absolute joy and get looks, questions, etc., whether driven to a car meet or the grocery store. Check this forum regularly for tips, help, etc. My '66 327/300, originally with the Borg-Warner automatic, has the Holley 4160. Your statement "... as original as I can..." is one thing, comfortable driving for distance is something else. I had the GM 700R4 (automatic) transmission put in which has an overdrive. If I were you, I'd investigate a manual with an overdrive -- 3100rpm at 70mph is a lot noisier, and a lot harder on the nerves, than 2200rpm at 70. Good luck and keep us posted.

Vintage Air has all kinds of retrofit brackets. Good metal, welds and tight tolerances. Good luck.

Pull the wire from the coil (the wire leading to the distributor) -- you don't want the engine running when doing this. The post on the coil which has the wire attached which leads from the ignition switch should have two wires attached. Put the ignition switch in the ON position and measure the voltage at this terminal. You may read 7-9 volts. If so, you probably have a resistor wire leading from the switch to the coil and would not need the ballast resistor. If you have full voltage, you probably have regular (non resistor) wire in place and may have a bad resistor, which you apparently suspect. (The wiring diagram shows an inline ballast resistor; my '66 has the resistor wire leading from the ignition and does not need the ballast.) A separate wire from the starter solenoid passes full voltage to the coil when the switch is in the START position. Have a helper hold the ignition switch in the START position; the voltage at this same terminal should now be 13 volts or so and revert to 7-9 volts when the key is released. If you have full voltage in the ON position without the ballast resistor in the line but the car won't run with the resistor in line, you may have a weak coil. If you don't know the condition of the ignition system, I'd probably replace ignition components, at least for now. Coils of that era are not designed to operate at full voltage.. As I understand it, the electronic ignition requires full battery voltage continuously; hence, you'd have to put in a relay to pass full voltage IF, IF you don't have full battery voltage with the ignition in the ON position which, again, would indicate resistor wire from the ignition switch. Welcome to the club. Come back here often. Lots of owners chiming in with tips, how to's, etc. Good luck and keep us informed.

Mine came with the B/W 3-speed automatic which I had replaced with a 700R4 GM which has a torque converter and overdrive.

My '66 with the 327/300 has the 4160.

Thanks everyone for the info! I did not want to go the NOS route and was hoping for new rubber. Left town yesterday morning and got back 45 min. ago from a car show -- only Avanti there among >100 cars. Some folks knew what they were looking at; many did not. "Looks like James Bond's car!" "Uhh - OK" "Studebaker's original production used their 289ci motor for two of the versions they offered." "Oh, they used a Ford Motor." "Next!" Enjoy life, everyone! And, thanks again!

Bill, Thanks so much for this! Do you know if these are NOS or new 'repops'? I'm guessing Wildfelr is your dog's name - I love it. You are right; attitude is everything. You have a good one, also!

Looks as though the front suspension bushings are letting go. From what I've read, the Delrin are metal, made for racing setups and not the way to go. From what I've heard from a local restoration guy, the polyurethane are almost as hard and squeak badly. It appears Moog makes rubber bushings of many sizes. Does anyone have all the Moog p/n's for the setup. Going into it, I'll replace all of them. Thanks for any assistance.

Being you changed the master cylinder, I'd probably start with assuring the clearance between the end of the booster rod and the seat of the master cylinder piston is within spec's. If you're uncertain, a tool is available which is used for this. Good luck.